Think NC highway litter is out of control? You can help as cleanup event resumes
A statewide volunteer effort to pick up trash along North Carolina highways will go on as scheduled this spring, after twice being canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Adopt-A-Highway Spring Litter Sweep will take place April 10 through 24. NCDOT provides trash bags, gloves and safety vests to volunteers from local businesses, community groups, schools, churches and law enforcement agencies and then collects the filled bags they leave along the highways.
During the spring Litter Sweep in 2019, nearly 3,300 volunteers picked up 75,000 pounds of trash along 1,218 miles of road, according to NCDOT spokesman Harris Kay.
Last spring’s Litter Sweep was canceled because of Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order to try to prevent spread of the coronavirus, Kay said. Continued restrictions led NCDOT to scrap the fall Litter Sweep as well.
“Since then, we’ve learned a great deal about what steps to take to be safer from COVID by wearing masks and gloves and maintaining a safe distance from other volunteers,” he said. “So we’re going to be making sure that all of the volunteers adhere to those precautions to keep everyone safe.”
There’s plenty of trash to pick up. In addition to the cancellation of volunteer cleanups, financial problems prompted NCDOT to cut back on roadside maintenance last year, including litter collection. The results were evident this winter, with bottles, cans, fast food containers, plastic bags and all sorts of other detritus lining the state’s highways.
Highway cleanup legislation
The public outcry helped spur lawmakers to introduce a bill in the House last month that would double the fines for littering in North Carolina and provide more money for anti-litter campaigns. House Bill 100, the Highway Cleanup Act of 2021, was introduced by House Majority Leader John Bell IV and three other legislators and is now co-sponsored by 63 other House members from both parties.
NCDOT is now on better financial footing and recently allocated an additional $30 million to roadside maintenance, including trash cleanup. The department is also using social media and other means to discourage littering and to highlight its cleanup efforts.
NCDOT says state workers, contractors, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers and Sponsor-A-Highway businesses and organizations collected 1.2 million pounds of trash in just the first two months of the year.
For more information about the Spring Litter Sweep, go to www.ncdot.gov and search for “Litter Sweep,” if the link is not already featured at the top of the page.
